The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 07, 2001
Filed:
Aug. 05, 1999
Eiji Yoneda, Naka-gun, JP;
Yasuhisa Asano, Kobe, JP;
Other;
Abstract
The apparatus enables measurement of the amount of contaminant in a welded portion to high accuracy and in a short time, using an X-ray fluorescence inspection apparatus. The end portion of a fuel rod having a bead portion on an end surface of an end plug is covered with an approximately cylindrical cap, with the bead portion exposed via a central aperture. The material of the cap is preferably titanium. With titanium the fluorescent X-ray radiation has a different wavelength from that of tungsten and zircaloy, and the amount of fluorescent X-ray radiation detected by a detector at a diffraction angle of the spectrum W-L &agr; of fluorescent X-ray radiation for tungsten is less than those for tungsten and zircaloy. Therefore, while the fluorescent X-ray radiation of the cap which covers the end surface of the end plug around the bead portion results in noise, the amount of this fluorescent X-ray radiation measured by the detector is much smaller than for the tungsten and the zircaloy of the bead portion.